Body Area Networks and Advances in Short- range Wireless Communications

This report is continuing the Practel project, which addresses an increasing role of Wireless ICT (WICT) in the developing of health care and wellness to reduce the cost and improve the quality of services. Ambient Intelligence is a vision where environment becomes smart, friendly, context-aware and responsive to any type of human needs. In such a world, computing and networking technology coexist with people in a ubiquitous, friendly and pervasive way. Numerous miniature and interconnected smart devices create a new intelligence and interact with each other seamlessly. For health care, this translates into proliferation of remote monitoring and telemedicine; and the report concentrates on advances in WICT to support medical and wellness needs. Particular, the report: 1. Provides up-to-date information on the WBAN (Wireless Body Area Networks) development. This includes the standardization process and the evolving industry marketing data. 2. Provides the up-to-date analysis of the Bluetooth technology and market with the emphasis on the medical profile. 3. Provides the up-to-date analysis of the ZigBee technology and market with the emphasis on the medical profile. 4. Provides the analysis of the Ultra Wideband technology and market and its application in telemedicine and fitness. 5. Provides the analysis of the self-powered sensors technologies and markets and their role the WBAN development. 6. Provides the analysis of WICT trends in the advancing wellness and sport activities. 7. Provides a survey of the industry vendors and their products portfolios. The report was written for a wide audience of medical and technical staff responsible for the developing of advanced telemedicine and wellness applications that are based on wireless communications.

Additional Information

Research Methodology

Considerable research was done using the Internet. Information from various Web sites was studied and analyzed; evaluation of publicly available marketing and technical publications was also conducted. Telephone conversations and interviews were held with industry analysts, technical experts and executives. In addition to these interviews and primary research, secondary sources were used to develop a more complete mosaic of the market landscape, including industry and trade publications, conferences and seminars.

The overriding objective throughout the work has been to provide valid and relevant information. This has led to a continual review and update of the information content.

Target Audience

This report provides the analysis of WBAN technologies and markets in health care and wellness applications; it concentrates on the recent developmental trends. The report is useful for service providers, IT departments of hospitals and other medical organizations, retail operators, vendors, network operators and managers, investors and end users seeking to gain a deeper understanding of new trends in the wireless communications medical applications.

For systems integrators, the report provides an analysis and assessment of competing products currently available as well as an estimation of the overall opportunities in the coming years.